RapidRetouch v1.0.3 - JPEGs Upright, Better Face Detection, Rotate 90° & Camera Info in Exports

A JPEG update, shaped by testers' photos. RapidRetouch was built around RAW and TIFF, but lots of you are bringing JPEGs, so version 1.0.3 makes them first-class: they now open the right way up, show their true colours, and keep their camera information on export. It also finds faces it used to miss, adds a Rotate 90° button, and lets Relight follow each face when you paste settings or apply a preset.

As always, everything runs on your own computer: no uploads, no accounts, no credits.

JPEG Fixes

• Portrait JPEGs open upright: cameras and phones store most portrait photos sideways, with a note saying which way to turn them. The thumbnails followed that note but the opened photo didn't, so portrait JPEGs opened on their side, faces weren't found and the face tools did nothing. They now open upright (TIFFs too).
• True colours: JPEGs in Display P3 (iPhones) or Adobe RGB (many cameras) looked washed out in the app. The preview and thumbnails now show their real colours. Exports were always right, and still keep the photo's own colour profile.
• Camera information kept: exports now carry the original's camera, lens, capture date, exposure settings, author, copyright and location (if it had one), so they sort by capture date in Lightroom or your photo library. This works from RAW files too. 16-bit TIFF exports carry it as XMP, which Lightroom, Capture One and Bridge read.
• Only RAW, TIFF and JPEG open: other files (such as PNG) are skipped with a message, rather than opening and misbehaving.

New Features

Rotate 90°

A 90° button in the Crop bar (press C) turns the photo a quarter clockwise, for a photo that still opens sideways. The face tools, masks and export all see it upright. Turning a photo starts its crop, relight circle and brush work afresh, as they were placed on the old orientation, so it's best done straight after opening.

Relight follows the face

Pasting settings, or applying a preset, now carries the Relight panel's Exposure, Warmth and Feather, and places the circle on each photo's own face. Batch jobs need no extra time, since the face is found anyway. Pasting back onto the photo you copied from keeps your hand-placed circle.

Face Detection

• Full-length portraits: the face finder looks at a small copy of the photo, so in a full-length shot the face was only a few pixels and was missed. It now also searches the photo in overlapping close-ups, and double-checks anything it finds there, so leaves, grass or a shoulder aren't mistaken for faces. On our test set, ten more photos now find their face and none found a false one.
• Low-key photos: when no face turns up, it tries once more on a brightened copy, which finds faces in dark, moody shots.
• Still a limit: a face turned fully side-on (with only one eye visible) can't be mapped, so the face tools can't work on it. Everything else still does.

What to Download

OS	Architecture	Format	Download Link
Windows	x64	.exe	RapidRetouch for Windows
Windows	x64	.msi	RapidRetouch for Windows (MSI)
macOS (Apple Silicon)	ARM64	.dmg	RapidRetouch for macOS
Linux	x86_64	.AppImage	RapidRetouch AppImage
Linux (Debian / Ubuntu)	x86_64	.deb	RapidRetouch .deb
Linux (Fedora / openSUSE)	x86_64	.rpm	RapidRetouch .rpm

Intel Macs aren't supported: the AI library RapidRetouch uses no longer makes Intel Mac versions.

First Launch & Installation Notes

First launch

On first launch RapidRetouch downloads its AI engine once, showing its progress as it goes: about 3 GB on a PC with an NVIDIA graphics card (which it then uses for speed), about 1 GB otherwise. After that it starts straight away and works offline. Updating from an earlier version refreshes the engine automatically.

Unsigned installers

The installers aren't code-signed yet, so your computer will warn that the publisher is unverified the first time:

• Windows: SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.
• macOS: run this once in Terminal, then open RapidRetouch as normal:

  xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/RapidRetouch.app

  Or try to open it once, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the note about RapidRetouch and click Open Anyway.
• Linux AppImage: make it executable (chmod +x RapidRetouch_1.0.3_amd64.AppImage), then open it.

▶ New to RapidRetouch? Watch the tutorial video.

If you find it useful: buy me a coffee ☕

RapidRetouch v1.0.2 - Top Bar Tools, Slider Eyes, Instant Opacity & Faster Patching

A workflow release, from a list of things noticed while editing real shoots. Version 1.0.2 moves the Remove tools into the top bar, adds an eye to every slider so you can switch single adjustments off and on, makes the Opacity sliders instant, speeds up patching a lot, and fixes the skin map missing spots on some faces.

As always, everything runs on your own computer: no uploads, no accounts, no credits.

New Features

Remove tools in the top bar

Brush, Glasses and Patch have moved out of the side panel into the top bar, as yellow icons next to Crop. Hover over one to see its name. When you pick a tool the others step aside, and its own controls appear right beside it: brush size (and reflection strength for Glasses), Undo, Clear (just that tool's work), Hold for before, and a red × to close it. Short instructions show over the photo while you work.

New shortcuts: G for Glasses and P for Patch, alongside B for the brush and C for Crop. Esc closes Brush and Glasses.

An eye on every slider

Every slider from Skin downwards (Skin, Dodge & Burn, Relight, Eyes, Mouth and Clothes) now has a small eye by its name. Click it to switch that one adjustment off and see the photo without it; its value is kept, so clicking again (or just moving the slider) brings it straight back. Green means on, red means off, so anything switched off is easy to spot before you export. Exports follow what you see, and copy/paste and presets carry the on/off state with the settings.

Histogram behind the tone curve

The Luminosity curve now shows a histogram of the photo's tones behind it, as the curve sees them (after Exposure, Dehaze and the rest), so you can see where the shadows, midtones and highlights sit while you shape the curve.

Speed

• Instant Opacity sliders: dragging a panel's Opacity used to re-run every panel after it at each step. The preview now blends between the picture with that panel fully on and fully off, so each step is about ten times faster. The difference from the exact result is at most 3 levels in 255 and invisible; zoomed-in views and exports still use the exact calculation.
• Much faster patching: a patch or brush removal no longer makes RapidRetouch measure the whole backdrop and find the neck again. Only the area you changed is updated, with an identical result, and a patch on the person skips the backdrop entirely. Patching and undoing while zoomed in is two to five times faster.
• Loading circle: when an update takes more than a moment, a small circle spins in the corner of the photo.

Fixes & Polish

• Acne missing spots: on clean-shaven faces, the beard detector could mistake spots, smile-line shadows and nostril shading for stubble, which left them out of the skin map, so Acne never saw them. It now only looks for stubble on faces that have a beard.
• Zoomed in: the status bar no longer keeps saying "Rendering full-resolution detail" after the detail has arrived.
• Colour sliders: Temperature, Tint, Warmth and the hue sliders show their colour scale on the slider track itself.
• Title bar: the open photo's name, size and bit depth now sit in the title bar. The top bar has been tidied: Fit, zoom and 100% after Original, the tools, and About on the right.

What to Download

OS	Architecture	Format	Download Link
Windows	x64	.exe	RapidRetouch for Windows
Windows	x64	.msi	RapidRetouch for Windows (MSI)
macOS (Apple Silicon)	ARM64	.dmg	RapidRetouch for macOS
Linux	x86_64	.AppImage	RapidRetouch AppImage
Linux (Debian / Ubuntu)	x86_64	.deb	RapidRetouch .deb
Linux (Fedora / openSUSE)	x86_64	.rpm	RapidRetouch .rpm

Intel Macs aren't supported: the AI library RapidRetouch uses no longer makes Intel Mac versions.

First Launch & Installation Notes

First launch

On first launch RapidRetouch downloads its AI engine once, showing its progress as it goes: about 3 GB on a PC with an NVIDIA graphics card (which it then uses for speed), about 1 GB otherwise. After that it starts straight away and works offline. Updating from an earlier version refreshes the engine automatically.

Unsigned installers

The installers aren't code-signed yet, so your computer will warn that the publisher is unverified the first time:

• Windows: SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.
• macOS: run this once in Terminal, then open RapidRetouch as normal:

  xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/RapidRetouch.app

  Or try to open it once, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the note about RapidRetouch and click Open Anyway.
• Linux AppImage: make it executable (chmod +x RapidRetouch_1.0.2_amd64.AppImage), then open it.

▶ New to RapidRetouch? Watch the tutorial video.

If you find it useful: buy me a coffee ☕

RapidRetouch v1.0.1 - Relight, Dehaze, Smarter Skin Map & Faster Laptop Sliders

The first update since RapidRetouch went public, shaped by testing it on real shoots. Version 1.0.1 brings a new Relight panel for putting light back on a face, a Dehaze slider, a much smarter skin map (hats, side profiles and shadowed skin), and a big responsiveness fix for laptops without a graphics card.

As always, everything runs on your own computer: no uploads, no accounts, no credits.

New Features

Relight

A radial light for the face, like Lightroom's radial filter. Click Add on face and RapidRetouch places a soft ellipse over the face, sized to it and turned with the head tilt. Then:

• Exposure brightens (or darkens) the light, in stops.
• Warmth makes it warmer or cooler without changing its brightness.
• Feather sets how gradually it fades toward the edge.

With Edit circle you can drag inside the circle to move it, drag the edge handles to stretch it, drag the top handle to turn it, and drag the dashed inner ring to set the feather by hand. It works in linear light, the way a real light adds up, and it runs after the retouching, so it stays quick even on a laptop.

Dehaze

A new Dehaze slider in the Tone panel, between Exposure and Vibrance. Move it right to clear haze or a washed-out look: blacks deepen, contrast and colour come back, and whites stay white. Move it left for a soft, misty haze. It measures each photo's own haze, so a hazy outdoor shot clears a lot while a low-key studio portrait with true blacks changes only gently.

Skin Map Improvements

• Hats: the face tools and Dodge & Burn no longer creep into the underside of a hat brim. They now keep off hats, glasses frames and headbands as well as hair. Skin seen through glasses lenses is still retouched.
• Side profiles: the nose, upper lip and front of the chin were left out on side profiles. They're now part of the skin map and Dodge & Burn.
• Shadowed skin: skin in shadow (under the cheekbones, along the chin) was often patchy in the skin map because shadows change skin's colour. It's now taken in where the AI is confident it's face skin, while beards and stubble stay out.

Core Improvements

• Faster sliders on laptops: on computers without an NVIDIA graphics card, moving several sliders in a row could lag for seconds while the app finished rendering full detail. Full-detail rendering now gives way the moment you move a slider, and picks up where it left off once you stop.
• Clear per tool: in the Remove panel, Clear now clears only the selected tool's work (Clear brush, Clear glasses or Clear patch), keeping the rest. Undo still steps back through everything in order.
• Skin opens on Face: the Skin panel always starts on the Face tab.

What to Download

OS	Architecture	Format	Download Link
Windows	x64	.exe	RapidRetouch for Windows
Windows	x64	.msi	RapidRetouch for Windows (MSI)
macOS (Apple Silicon)	ARM64	.dmg	RapidRetouch for macOS
Linux	x86_64	.AppImage	RapidRetouch AppImage
Linux (Debian / Ubuntu)	x86_64	.deb	RapidRetouch .deb
Linux (Fedora / openSUSE)	x86_64	.rpm	RapidRetouch .rpm

Intel Macs aren't supported: the AI library RapidRetouch uses no longer makes Intel Mac versions.

First Launch & Installation Notes

First launch

On first launch RapidRetouch downloads its AI engine once, showing its progress as it goes: about 3 GB on a PC with an NVIDIA graphics card (which it then uses for speed), about 1 GB otherwise. After that it starts straight away and works offline. Updating from 1.0.0 refreshes the engine automatically.

Unsigned installers

The installers aren't code-signed yet, so your computer will warn that the publisher is unverified the first time:

• Windows: SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.
• macOS: run this once in Terminal, then open RapidRetouch as normal:

  xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/RapidRetouch.app

  Or try to open it once, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the note about RapidRetouch and click Open Anyway.
• Linux AppImage: make it executable (chmod +x RapidRetouch_1.0.1_amd64.AppImage), then open it.

▶ New to RapidRetouch? Watch the tutorial video.

If you find it useful: buy me a coffee ☕

RapidRetouch v1.0.0

See the README for install instructions. On first launch RapidRetouch downloads its AI engine (about 1–3 GB, once).